People die. A lot of people. People we’ve grown to love, admire, and were just starting to know.
As always with Kirkman, things I expected were dead wrong, and things I didn’t expect occurred. The irony of course is that Woodsbury does indeed seize the prison, but with the first and second fences down. They’re now officially trapped inside, without an escape plan, and little food. With the outside taken over by the zombies, there’s no room for gardens or fresh air, and Kirkman leaves little options for the people led by the madman of the town.
Tag Archives: zombie apocalypse
Diary of the Dead (2007)
Romero has given his fans something to take to the grave with them, with five films that are generally contradictory and controversial phenomena. There was “Night” and “Dawn” which are still basically debated and adored, the once despised, but now appreciated “Day” and the rather sub-par “Land,” all leading into “Diary.” Romero’s newest output is a confusing fascinating beast. Never has one of his films completely divided fans before, and admittedly it’s a monster worth observing. It’s both despicable and brilliant, it’s hideous and yet quite apt. “Diary” continues splitting fans that both despise it and adore it for the very same reasons. But is Romero really just the observer here?
Automaton Transfusion (2006) (DVD)
Take a recycled concept, grab some cliché characters, put them in a brutally horrendous situation and what do you get? A creative director providing one of the most exciting and horrifying independent zombie movies in years. “Automaton Transfusion” has the chips stacked against it from the beginning with a plot that could either be really good or really bad, but the entire film works and it’s barely ninety minutes. There’s not much plot to be taken here, which really isn’t a caveat.
Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)
I’ve come to grips with the fact that we may never be able to have an almost accurate and horrifying zombie film stemming from “Resident Evil,” but perhaps someday someone will reboot the franchise and actually create some great zombie flicks. In case you didn’t know it, “Extinction” recaps the entire three films, including the story of Umbrella ad nauseum, and yes, there’s nothing like a warmed over sense of tension and suspense. From the first five minutes, it’s pretty obvious this has no idea what it wants to be, but truly, it’s just another episode in an ongoing franchise, regardless of the pretense it sets up that it’s the final film in the series. It’s not.
After (2006)
The apocalypse. I love it. I love everything about it, I love the potential for story and human study is presents, I love the whole idea of society crumbling under the threat of some force, and I revel in writing about it. “After” is yet another take on a zombie apocalypse, except this time… it’s through the eyes of a zombie. After a presumably horribly bloody death, three survivors, held up in a large house, draw their attention elsewhere as their father lays in the next room slowly dying. Through his eyes, we watch his last sights as his children run back and forth planning an escape from the zombies outside. He then emerges and begins wandering the house, with his children struggling to fend him off without killing him.
Awaken the Dead (2007)
I always say, if you’re going to feature a priest as the center of your horror movie, however extreme or dramatic, make the priest a demon stomping hard ass and not some moaning pussy that holds the bible out in front of him at every chance. The hero Christopher is a little of both. A pacifist in some ways who is drawn into the front lines of battle, once evil comes a knockin’. “Awaken the Dead” is a mixed bag in terms of what it offers, but most of the time it hits more than misses. And for that, it deserves to be seen.
City of Rott (2006)
Don’t be fooled, its goofy animation isn’t a sign that it’s for kids. This is strictly an adult affair, folks. Imagine “South Park” played with a straight face, imagine Romero’s “Dead” films without a plot, and you’ll get Frank Sudol’s “City of Rott.” An old man is the basic hero for Sudol’s zombie epic in which a new toxin discovered in water creates a citywide epidemic of flesh eating zombies that are rotting from the inside out. Armed with only a walker, which is his best friend, his means of conveyance, and his weapon, he looks around for some new loafers to help his ailing feet, but he can’t stop running into those stupid zombies, and the parasites that leak from the bodies when destroyed.